Download full issue PDF Contents Editorial That's the Spirit! Articles Humanists and Spirituality, Andrew Copson That's the Spirit!, Dinah Livingstone The Chimera of Saint George, Dominic Kirkham The No-Funeral Funeral?, Frank Walker Poetry So much owed by so many,...
At the 2021 Non-Theist Friends' annual conference Andrew Copson spoke about this idea, which some humanists reject as a deplorable oxymoron. I want to open up some of the questions that exist for us as non-theists about spirituality or the spirit. And I think the...
Dominic Kirkham says some things are not quite what they seem. I owe this reflection to Vladimir Putin, and also a coincidence. Perhaps you have noticed that when the President of Russia presents himself to the world on TV his preferred position is at a business-like...
I was recently startled by a TV advertisement for low-cost funerals. I was particularly interested as I am 87 and well aware that I shall soon be in the hands of the undertaker. Today funerals have become extremely expensive, so we would normally welcome ways of...
Carol Palfrey revisits The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James I was introduced to The Varieties of Religious Experience at my very first SOF Conference. Richard Hall, a long-standing member, took me under his wing and, during our conversations over the...
In Luke's gospel (1:46–53), shortly after Mary becomes pregnant with Jesus she visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is six months pregnant with John the Baptist, and perhaps stays on to help her with the birth. This joyful encounter of the two pregnant women is known as...
Darton, Longman & Todd (London 2022). Pbk. 80 pages. £8.99. As its title promises, this is the account of one person's religious journey and understanding. The author is an American Benedictine nun and life-long Roman Catholic. Her religious formation in the 1950s...
Darton, Longman & Todd (London 2021). Pbk. 83 pages. £8.99. Once in a blue moon, a theological gem is discovered! Such is Ilia Delio's The Primacy of Love. The book is one in a series where some of the world's leading theologians explain the tenets of their...
Kathryn Southworth reviews Collected and New Poems by David PermanRockingham Press (Ware 2021). Pbk 208 pages. £14.99. David Perman is best known as a supporter of poetry, founder of the Ware group of poets and editor of the Rockingham Press, publishing poetry, local...
John Pearson reflects on cats and dogs. Alas, poor Inca, I knew him well … for about six months at any rate. Seldom has this column courted much feedback … half a dozen responses, mixed, nothing too violent. Maybe this time some fur will fly, as I reflect on cats and...